Developing software applications and products often requires the coordinated efforts of many developers (e.g., software programmers). This development often involves the creation and modification of several software components (e.g., files), the collective body of which is often stored in a centralized, common repository shared by the developers. There are several Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) available today to assist developers in collaboratively developing software, such as, for example, Microsoft® Visual Studio® (MVS) available from Microsoft Corporation. IDEs enable developers to organize a set of software components (e.g., as a directory or some other form of hierarchy) as a single entity referred to herein as a “development set.” For example, MVS packages a plurality of software components as a “solution,” where each solution may include one or more software components (e.g., “projects” and/or files), and where each package may include one or more components (e.g., files).
As used herein, a “software component” is a component of a larger software entity, for example, an application (program), a development package, a project, a software product, another software component, another type of software entity, or any combination thereof. A software component may be, for example, a project, a program, a file, a directory, an object, a record, a table, another type of software abstraction, or any combination thereof.
During the course of collaborative software development, a developer often loads a local copy of a development set (e.g., a solution) from a repository to the developer's computer. Loading a development set onto a computer can be a time-consuming task, especially if the application is being loaded remotely over a communications network (i.e., a network). As used herein, a “network” is a group of two or more components interconnected by one or more segments of transmission media on which communications may be exchanged between the components. Each segment may be any of a plurality of types of transmission media, including one or more electrical or optical wires or cables made of metal and/or optical fiber, air (e.g., using wireless transmission over carrier waves) or any combination of these transmission media. As used herein, “plurality” means two or more. It should be appreciated that a network may be as simple as two components connected by a single wire, bus, wireless connection, or other type of segments. Further, it should be appreciated that when a network is illustrated in a drawing of this application as being connected to an element in the drawing, the connected element itself is considered part of the network.
During the loading of at least a portion of a development set (e.g., one or more files and/or packages or the entire set), a typical IDE does not allow a developer to access any of the software components of the portion until the entire portion has been loaded onto the developer's computer. Although a developer may only need to work on a small subset of the software components of the portion (e.g., a single project or one or more files thereof), the developer must wait until the entire portion is loaded, which may take tens of seconds, minutes or even hours, depending on the size of the set. Such delays are often unacceptable in today's fast-paced business world, and result in frustrated developers and inefficient uses of developers' time.